Looking In On: Arts: Unexpectedly, blight intrudes on nature

Monday, Sept. 3, 2007 | 10 p.m.

Painter Ivan Fortushniak's rural landscapes are intense, lush and romantic. But there is something else: the smokestacks, natural disasters and airplanes that taint the traditional poetry of the landscapes.

Also found amid the emotions and idealism of Fortushniak's historical landscapes is a contemporary dialogue created by surface manipulations: scratches, burns, text and mixed media. Fortushniak refers to these works as the “corrosion of historic landscape paintings and our environment.”

See them on display through Sept. 30 at the College of Southern Nevada's Fine Arts Gallery. Details: “Paintings” by Ivan Fortushniak, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, CSN's Fine Arts Gallery in the campus' performing arts center, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave. Admission is free, 641-4205.

Artist submissions

Clark County's cultural division seeks artists for its 2008 and 2009 exhibit season. And nothing says visibility quite like the Clark County Government Center's rotunda, where a large cross-section of valley residents shuffle through daily.

Artwork for the cylindrical lobby referencing local geology must be three dimensional.

But the rotunda in the Government Center at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway is just one location. The county also seeks proposals from Southern Nevada artists for its gallery at Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive, which accepts two- and-three-dimensional work, media pieces and installations. Submissions must be postmarked by Nov. 1 to Patrick Gaffey, 2601 E. Sunset Road, Las Vegas, NV 89120. Phone: 455-7340.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at Kristen@lasvegassun.com.